First trailer for Star Wars origin story Rogue One lands online

Is it December 16th yet? No? Well, that’s the day Rogue One: A Star Wars story opens and the first trailer for the movie hit the Internet this morning. The story centers on the Rebellion’s plan to steal the data tapes for the Death Star, which we see nearing completion here. Rogue One is being helmed by Godzilla director Gareth Edwards, and from what we can see in the trailer, this looks like a possible solid entry in the Star Wars canon.

Felicity Jones from The Theory of Everything heads up the cast as the rough-edged Jyn Erso, but we also see clips that include Forest Whitaker, and there’s even a short bit with Ip Man’s Donnie Yen getting all Ninja on some stormtroopers. And how about a scene of a battle with Imperial Walkers in a tropical setting? December suddenly seems like it’s a long, long ways off…

Who doesn’t love Reddit? The free form and free speech forum is famous for its unshackled avenues of discussion. Unfortunately, it’s also famous as a haven for hate-filled trolls and online harassment. But that is about to change in a big way. Yesterday, site co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman gave users a way to tame the haters with a new blocking tool. The blocking tool can be focused on individual users who have been harassing you.

You don’t see their posts or messages, and they don’t know they’re being blocked – until they figure it out later, of course. The blocking tool is just the latest step that Reddit bosses have deployed to tame the sometimes-toxic parts of the site. One person from Reddit who worked to create the blocking tool told the New York Times that they are working on an automated system that detects bad behavior on the site, but no timeframe for deployment was mentioned.

We’re still having fun with the HTC Vive virtual reality system, and now, graphics processor builder Nvidia says they’ve got some new tech to make just about any VR even better. One current problem with VR is latency, or the slight delay in matching your motions in real life to those in the VR world. For some VR users, this slight delay can result in nausea or other ill feelings. One solution? Higher refresh rates for the headset video screens.

So far, a 90 hertz refresh rate seems to, at least, get the job done for most users. So what has Nvidia come up with? How a 1,700 hertz refresh rate. Nvidia demonstrated just such display technology recently at a graphics tech conference, and you can bet they’ll start baking some of that speed into VR-related products just as quick as they can. The result will be less if any movement latency, and a more natural, more real look to video content inside the headset.